Monsters you won't see on Halloween

Halloween -- and its spooky collection of spirits, ghosts and ghouls -- began as a pagan holiday, but Christian history is no slouch when it comes to its own fantastical monsters.

Stephen Asma, a professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, studies such creatures and is finishing a book on the religious and cultural significance of monsters, to be released next year by Oxford University Press.

We asked him to share a handful of his favorites not often taught in Sunday school class.

Blemmyae

"Headless humanoids with faces emerging from their chests -- these creatures arose in the legends of the ancient Greeks but had a long career in medieval Christian literature and imagery," Asma said. "They were thought to live somewhere in the unexplored areas of Africa. They were still considered believable as late as the 17th Century, when Shakespeare mentions them in Othello."

Cynocephali

"These creatures were originally discussed in ancient Greek and Roman sources (most famously by Pliny the Elder). The Christian tradition continued the belief that these dog-headed, barking men lived in the Far East and in remote parts of Africa. St. Augustine discusses them in his book 'City of God,' and a version of St. Christopher (popular in early Orthodox traditions) describes him as having a dog's head. The medieval church often debated whether such monsters had souls and whether they could be saved by the Gospel."

Human-headed locusts

"According to Revelation 12:3, the sky will suddenly fill with a giant red dragon, 'having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head.' A series of loud trumpet blasts will signal the coming of the dragon. When trumpet number five blasts, the human-headed locusts hit the scene (Rev. 9:7). These monster grasshoppers will have 'tails like unto scorpions'" (Rev. 9:10).

Behemoth

"This beast appears in the Book of Job in the Bible. He is the earthmonster partner of Leviathan, the sea monster. He is a massive buffalolike beast, stronger than any other animal. He demonstrates Yahweh's creative power."

Horned Monster

"Several monsters appear in the prophesies of the Book of Daniel, but the weirdest is a creature that grew horns on top of its horns, and these horns had eyes and a mouth that screamed battle cries. 'It was unlike to the other beasts which I had seen before it, and had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold another little horn sprung out of the midst of them: and three of the first horns were plucked up at the presence thereof: and behold eyes like the eyes of a man were in this horn, and a mouth speaking great things.'" (Daniel 7:7-8)